“I’ll send your stuff. Goodbye, Charlotte.” He added before stomping back out the door, taking my bruised, battered, and broken heart with him.
Wrapping my arms around me, I felt a coldness in my bones I’d never felt before. It hurt. Everything hurt.
“That was brutal,” Hannah commented as she came and sat beside me, trying to wrap a blanket around my shoulders while juggling a fussy baby.
“It’s what I deserved,” I admitted painfully as sobs wracked my body.
“Charlotte, honey, tell him the truth. Sure, he’s hurt and angry, and stressed and tired and terrified …”
“And that’s supposed to make it all right?” Liam interrupted, obviously on team Charlotte.
“Absolutely not. He’s an ass who needs his butt kicked for how he just treated our girl, but I also understand where he’s coming from.”
“You can?”
“Yeah. I can. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not excusing it because he was out of line, but, Charlotte, you have to remember, he doesn’t have the whole story. Talk to him. Make him understand. Then he’ll be back here on his hands and knees begging you to accept his apology for his dickish ways.”
“He doesn’t want to hear it,” I said as I curled into a ball and prayed sleep would make it all just go away.
“Maybe tonight he doesn’t. But everything will look better in the morning. Give him a chance to sleep on it, and you need some rest as well, but tomorrow’s a new day. Try then.” Hannah’s words of wisdom made sense. At least I think they did. It was hard to tell through the sleepy fog the painkillers were causing.
“And if he still doesn’t want to hear it?” I choked out, deathly afraid of the answer.
Liam lifted me into the center of the mattress and got me settled under the covers. I didn’t say a word. I couldn’t. I felt dead inside. I’d done the right thing, I know I had, but all I’d got for it was a broken heart. If it made Isla better, then it'd have been worth it, but right now, I just wanted to die.
After saying good night and promising he’d be on the couch if I needed him, Hannah and Liam both kissed my forehead and left me to cry myself to sleep. Just before the door latched, I’m pretty sure I heard Hannah tell Liam, “If he doesn’t want to hear it, then he’s a fucking idiot.” But I knew the truth, Luke wasn’t an idiot. He was the love of my life and I’d just fucked it all up.
26
LUKE
Fuck I wantedto hit something. Anything. It didn’t matter what, I just couldn’t … “Agh!” I growled as the elevator doors closed.
I couldn’t believe it. I really couldn’t. I thought I knew Charlotte. I thought I knew the woman who owned my heart. The woman I’d opened up my home to. The woman I’d introduced to my daughter. The woman my daughter idolized, but turns out I didn’t know a fucking thing.
An hour ago, when Mrs. Neal showed up in Isla’s room promptly kicking me out and instructing me to go home, shower and eat before I came back, I’d been reluctant to move. All day I sat in Isla’s room. Waiting alone while she went in. Holding her hand and waiting for her to wake up. Waiting for Charlotte to show up and check in. But she never came.
I forgot everything, even my own name, when Isla’s beautiful long lashes fluttered and her eyes met mine.
“Hi, sweetheart.” I smiled down at her, having never been more relieved to see her awake.
“Dad?” There was questioning in her voice, and I looked over at the nurse who was pressing buttons on the machine regulating her IV fluids.
“It’s normal for her to be a little groggy right now. Give her a few minutes to get herself oriented,” she encouraged with a calmness that rubbed off on me.
“Yes, princess. I’m right here. How are you feeling?” I asked dumbly.
“Where’s Charlotte?”
Good fucking question. Where is Charlotte? She made her appearance early this morning when we’d first arrived but since then she’d been MIA. I’d tried texting her and even calling a couple of times, but everything was going unanswered. At one stage, when I knew Isla had been taken in, I ducked down to her office to see if I could catch her, but everything was neatly in place. It was like she hadn’t even been in today.
“She’s working at the moment. I’m sure she’ll be by as soon as she can,” I told her, praying I wasn’t setting her up for disappointment.
“Oh,” Isla replied before snuggling back down in the blankets, squeezing her teddy, and falling back to sleep.
I must’ve dozed in the chair because when I woke, Mrs. Neal was perched on the end of Isla’s bed and they were in the middle of a heated debate about which outfit Barbie would wear when she visited the hospital.
“Sorry, I must’ve passed out,” I apologized, running a hand over my chin, and ignoring the stubble.
